Impotence and Drugs / Alcohol

Alcohol induced impotence

If you have an unhealthy lifestyle, it's likely your ability to achieve an erection when you're sexual stimulated will be affected greatly. It can also cause you to lose your erection before ejaculation to prevent you from completing satisfactory sexual intercourse. If you consume large amounts of alcohol you are more at risk of experiencing male impotence.

Most men will be familiar with the term 'brewers droop' after drinking a too much alcohol, but impotence only becomes a problem if you experience the inability to achieve an erection frequently.

How does alcohol cause impotence?

If you consume too much alcohol on a regular basis, it can lead to an eventual damaging of your nervous system. It does this by impairing the impulses between your brain's pituitary gland and your penis.

Your nervous system is responsible for triggering the signals that dilate and relax the blood vessels in your penis which leads to an erection. This means that if you are a heavy drinker you will cause damage to your nervous system and could experience impotence even when you are sober.

If you continue to abuse your body with alcohol over a prolonged period, clinical studies have shown that this can cause irreversible damage to the nerves in your penis. This condition is called alcohol impotence.

Drug induced impotence

If you are taking prescription medication for a medical condition, it is possible that it may cause you to experience impotence as a side effect. It's common to experience impotence if you are taking:

Anti-depressants or other psychiatric medication

Antihistamine medications

High blood pressure medication

Diuretics

Medications to treat Parkinson's disease

Chemotherapy and hormonal medications

Prescription pain killers

If you believe your medication is causing you to experience impotence, it is very important to seek professional medical advice from a doctor. You should not stop taking prescription medication without following your doctor's advice as this may cause potentially very harmful side effects. For this reason, it is very important to stop taking your prescription medication in the way your doctor advises you to. Alternatively, your doctor may be able prescribe different medication or lower the dosage of your current medication to treat your condition, in turn alleviating your impotence problem.

Recreational drugs

Over a prolonged time, recreational drugs can increase your chance of experiencing the problem of impotence. You could be at risk of developing impotence if you take any of the following:

Amphetamines

Barbiturates

Cocaine

Cannabis

Methadone

Nicotine

Heroin and oxcontin

These all cause a substantial amount of damage to your blood vessels and inhibit your nervous system, which can cause you to become impotent. Once you have damaged your nervous system, your brain is unable to send signals to your penis to make it erect.

Smoking and impotence

A recent study has concluded that men who smoke or regularly smoke 20 cigarettes per day were 15% more likely to become impotent compared to non-smokers. This is because smoking can restrict blood flow to your penis by blocking the penile arteries which prevents you from achieving an erection. The study also revealed that men who smoke or have smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years have a 72% increased risk of becoming impotent when compared to non-smokers. A smoking treatment like Champix can help assist you in quitting smoking and avoiding the risk of impotence.